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A parching, painterly interruption leads to Peach Ice Cream Pie

Horrifying heat is not good for ice cream. Neither, it seems, is it good for house painters. After weeks of weather-related delay, our house and kitchen were freshly painted and finally freed from painters. The outside, in its lovely new creamy white color, was baptized by a couple of non-drought-relieving nickel-sized hailstorms (thanks again, global weirding!). After restoring the cookbooks, WWII posters and various tchotchkes to our kitchen we were ready to once again bespatter its freshly painted walls with all manner of foodstuffs.

One of our first overly-involved efforts was this Peach Ice Cream Pie, based on a Bon Appetit recipe calling for store-bought peach ice cream. Michelle eschewed the easy route, hand-making this Camille Glenn version instead with some of our fresh local peaches. Assembly included spraying the kitchen with fragments of pit, since the recipe calls for the almond-flavored (and cyanide-containing) peach kernels. Making caramel (which, despite two tries, never got as dark as it should have) messed up our stove area nicely, too.

Making our favorite rabbit recipe, this time with some of Steve’s guanciale instead of prosciutto, added another layer of spots to the walls, as have several marathon sink-clearing sessions. Soon, possibly before our local peaches disappear, it will be as if the painters were never here. Oh well, at least the ceiling’s clean—at least, until the next blender explosion or something.

Scald 1/4 c. cream and milk, but don’t boil. Add 1/3 c. sugar to the egg yolks, and mix thoroughly with a whisk. When scalded milk is ready, slowly add it to the egg/sugar mixture while beating. Return mixture to saucepan. Cook, stirring until custard just begins to thicken — enough to lightly coat back of a wooden spoon. You are just cooking the egg yolks, not making a thick custard. Remove custard from heat and pour into a jar or bowl. Refrigerate until cold. This can be done a day or so ahead.

Peel peaches. (It is easiest to do so if they have been immersed in boiling water.) Remove and reserve pits. Purée peaches in a food processor with lemon juice, leaving no large lumps. Crack peach pits using nutcracker or hammer and remove kernels inside. Mash kernels and add to peach purée, along with remaining 1/3 c. sugar and salt. Mix well, cover tightly and refrigerate.

So glad you like it! I have to admit, it was a total cop-out. I just had it repainted the same as before. I love my green glass knobs so much and the only other alternative was white all around (which I sorta wanted, but everyone said I was crazy).

Thanks so much! Years ago, we fell in love with WWI-era food posters. We quickly learned we couldn’t afford them, so settled for 2nd best (WWII) and had lots of fun collecting them until the wall space was used up!

Ooh what a beautiful kitchen you have! I am squirming with envy! I’m glad you finally got some cooking in; I’m sure you’ve been going slightly lunatic without it. Love the sound of this peach ice cream. I covet an ice cream maker above all things.

Isn’t that just like life? I’m squirming with envy that you’re living in London, no matter how small the kitchen! I covet the fancy ice cream maker my mother has had for decades (can’t remember the brand but I do recall it was a BIG DEAL when she bought it). We’ve just got the kind with the bowl that goes in the freezer.

Thanks so much! I have a whole set of those World War II-era dish towels that my mother gave me, all with little cats and propaganda sayings. (Oh, and I hope you have electricity—but I gather perhaps the outages are north of you!)

Aah, the wonders of India! Thankfully, I live in Mumbai so no outages here- the benefit of being the financial capital. The stock exchanges would go kaput and angry trader mobs would be on the streets!

Wow! I can never get enough of luscious peaches…Truly a summer treat! Your pictures are amazing…We have been keeping an eye out for unique and interesting bloggers with phenomenal photography skills, and yours caught our attention! We have just recently launched a food photo submission gallery http://www.yumgoggle.com/gallery/ that allows you to showcase all your great work and share it with all of our visitors. We’d be proud to have your work as part of our growing collection to continue to have a larger reach and further inspire all fellow food lovers out there!

I have some serious kitchen envy! You should see mine (think: small). And those spots on your walls just add personality. I like using apricot kernels, they’re similarly almond-y. I haven’t died yet. The ice cream looks lovely–i love the peach color. And that pie must be incredible!

Thanks so much Sacha. Steve got some stomach thing the night I made this, and I thought “oh my god, it must be cyanide poisoning” even though I kept reminding myself my mom used to use the kernels in ice cream and I’m still here!

One of the items on my culinary To-Do list for the fall is to start making ice cream. If I’ve got any peaches left, this is on the list–if not, then up on Pinterest for next year. It sounds fabulous and clearly Camille Glenn is someone with whom I’m going to have to become familiar. Great post. Ken

I almost forgot–the rabbit link in this recipe sent me back to your earlier post–then back again, where I learned that the latest iteration involved guanciale. Bravo! Guanciale is the new bacon–carbonara just isn’t the same without digit sized pieces of it. Ken